One to do ..... an evening with Christina Rossetti

Now here is one to do and having said that I will just reproduce the invitation from The Dante Society

All the heaven is blazing – Tutto il cielo e’ splendente
Parallel Poems
Translated in Italian by Franca Maria Ferraris
Illustrated by Maria Teresa di Tanna

Thursday 18 January 2018, 6.30 pm – 8.30 pm

The Portico Library, 57 Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3FF

Societa’ Dante Alighieri and The Portico Library invite you to an evening with
 Christina Rossetti

“Tutto il cielo e’ splendente” is the first Italian translation of her work. The Italian poet-translator and the illustrator will present their new book with readings in both languages and a musical interlude.
 Poetry reading
Franca Maria Ferraris                                        Italian poet translator
Maria Teresa Di Tanna                                      Italian illustrator
Kate Fuggle                                                       musical interlude

Presentation by Anna Maria Forti Sheikh.

Christina Rossetti, one of the most original voices of her century: 1830-1894.
An English poet born in 1830 to Gabriele Rossetti, a poet and a political exile from Vasto, Abruzzo – Italy and Frances Polidori, the sister of Lord Byron's friend and physician, John William Polidori.

Christina wrote a variety of romantic, devotional and children's poems including ballads, love lyrics, and sonnets.

Best known for her long poem Goblin Market, her love poem Remember, and for the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter.

Her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti became an influential Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet.
Christina’s writing was influenced by the work of Dante Alighieri, Petrarch and other Italian writers. Her home was open to visiting Italian scholars, artists and revolutionaries.

The evening will conclude with a glass of Italian wine and nibbles.
 Tickets:
£ 5  members of Portico / Dante and students
£ 6  non-members

SOCIETA' DANTE ALIGHIERI – MANCHESTER
Il mondo in italiano – Promoting Italian Culture in the world since 1889
Email: dante@newfuture.org    
Website: www.dantemanchester.org.uk
https://twitter.com/LaDanteMCR/  Find us on Facebook

 Booking required:   T. 0161 236 6785 or email dante@newfuture.org or book online
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/christina-rossetti-presented-by-the-societa-dante-alighieri-tickets-40548931947

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Logo and portrait of Christina Rossetti, courtesy of Dante Society, and photograph, The Dante Society does St Anns' Square, 2017 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Deansgate at Dusk ....... a sky line forever altered

Now I am not a Luddite, nor do I have a thing against modern buildings, but there remains a simple observation that when a building makes you feel insignificant then there is something wrong with its design.

The great vaunting spires of Medieval cathedrals may have soared upwards but there was a limit to how far they could go, and that limit suited most of us.

Tall enough to make a statement about the building and its relationship to God but never too huge that you forgot this was a structure which was meant to be comfortable to look at and be part of.

All of which brings me to those two new towers at the end of Deansgate and a feeling that they add nothing to the landscape.

But that is just my opinion.  In the fullness of time I will ask Andy Robertson who has been recording the onward rise of the two since the ground was broken and building began.

Location Manchester

Pictures; Deansgate at Dusk ....... a sky line forever altered, 2018, from the collection of Andy Robertson

On Needham Avenue watching out for the first cakes from Parker's bakery

Now I am back with that building on Needham Avenue.

Like many people I had often pondered on its origins, and only recently discovered it had been built by a baker who gave his name to part of what is now Needham Avenue.

This was a Mr Walworth who had started up in business at the beginning of the 20th century relocating from Great Ancoats Street.

And now with the help of Sanda Hapgood I can add another chapter in the story because by 1934 it was run by P Parker who had branches across south Manchester.

But as this advert in the parish magazine shows Needham Avenue was the office and factory where it was all produced.

Picture, P Parker, Needham Avenue, from the St Clements’s Parish Magazine, courtesy of Sandra Hapgood

The Ten of Us .......... sixty years in the making ... one for 2018

Now this is an exhibition I won’t miss.

It runs from January 20 through to February 18 and contains seventy works by ten artists who first met in the 1950s while students at Manchester High School of Art.

The exhibition is at the Saddleworth Museum and Gallery.

Location; Saddleworth

Picture; poster of the exhibition, the Ten of Us

*Saddleworth Museum and Gallery, http://www.saddleworthmuseum.co.uk/
Saddleworth Museum, High Street, Uppermill, Saddleworth, Yorkshire, OL3 6HS, 01457 874093

Looking at Ancient History

This is another of my favourites and well worth a look at.

In just over 100 pages R J Unstead presented the young reader of the late 1950s with a sweeping story of the lives of people  from Ancient Egypt through the civilisations of the Two Rivers and to Crete, The Greeks and the Romans culminating with a section of What we owe to the Ancient World.

And like so many of Mr Unstead‘s books it mixes wonderful illustrations with descriptions of everyday life.

What I particularly like about the book is that concentration on “ordinary lives” which were beginning to become part of how history was presented to young people.

Picture; cover of Looking at Ancient History, R J Unstead, 1959

One hundred years of one house in Chorlton part 94......... comings and goings and the shadow of that Referendum

The continuing story of the house Joe and Mary Ann Scott lived in for over 50 years and the families that have lived here since.*

I wonder just what Joe and Mary Ann would have made of the impromptu gathering just after Christmas in what had been their dining room.

Back from Poland was our Saul, and Emilka, and their friends Ben who is Australian and Maria who comes from Warsaw.

Had they been here a bit earlier in the year they would have shared the table with Simone and Rosa who were born in Naples and Tina’s sister, husband and daughter who live just north of Milan and her brother from Varese.

These days I don’t think many in Chorlton would be surprised at this jumble of people from all over, and given that my maternal grandmother was German and Dad’s parents were from Scotland the mix of people in the house just seems commonplace.

Nor is this a recent development, for back in the 1970s the house was the natural stopping off point for friends from France, Spain and even London while in the future we have every expectation that batches of our Canadian cousins and friends will be spend time here.

All of which has made many a Christmas dinner very special with an ebb and flow of different accents, and languages, united by all being family.

Of course Brexit has injected uncertainty into our family, and despite the vacuous blandishments of some politicians we wonder about the status rights of the Italian side of the family in Britain and equally the long term future of our son who lives and works in Poland.

Just after the last world war we were happy to welcome, first the displaced refugees of Europe followed by the Windrush and later those from the sub continent, all of which contributed and enriched the country.

That has continued and our kids like us have embraced that freedom of movement and the sheer pleasure of meeting and working with colleagues and friends from Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the old eastern Europe.

Joe died long before we joined the Common Market and Mary Ann before that first referendum reaffirming our membership of the organization.

But they were not unfamiliar with Britain’s position as part of a bigger global band of countries.

They grew up during that time when a large chunk of the world was linked to Britain by empire, trading links and that military alliance with Russia and France.

If they didn’t have friends from the far flung parts of the world they would at least have been aware that we were part of that bigger world, which on a simple level would have been reinforced every time they went to the larder and used a host of tinned and dried foods which had originated on the other side of the globe  and ended up on the table in the dining room.


Location; Chorlton

Pictures; from the collections of Andrew Simpson, Hoe’s Sauces   from the series Celebrated Postcards, and  Staying at Home, marketed by Tuck & Sons, date unknown, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/  

*The story of a house,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20story%20of%20a%20house

Sunrise over Kent

An occasional series on all things sunrise.

Today in Kent from the camera of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick

Location; Kent


Picture; Kent sunrise, 2018 from the collection Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick